


revolution wears you well

by mazabm



Series: revolution wears you well [2]
Category: Bleach
Genre: (not to main characters!), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captain Renji, Gen, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Other, Post-Canon, Reform AU, Revolution, Slow Build, Soul Society Politics, The rest of the six are there! they just show up a little later, Violence, they're focused on doing the work love comes later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2020-12-20 18:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21061364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mazabm/pseuds/mazabm
Summary: Ichigo and Renji and a cast of others, changing Soul Society one fucked up thing at a timeOr,There is a lot of work to be done in Soul Society after the war.  It took them a minute but all the players have finally started to fall into their places.Ichigo has a choice to make, he can either continue to live in peace or he can continue what he was born to do, he can keep changing Soul Society for the better.   He won't do it alone, of course.  That might just be the whole point, no one should be alone when they die, with no one to help, no one.can be read separately from the rest of the series





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This comes literally right after part 1 right now. 
> 
> Part 2 finally has a coherent plot and I'm writing at a consistent pace so! We are live! This will probably end up being my NaNoWriMo attempt (not that long but yeah)  
I've been thinking about this all summer and Bleach nostalgia got to me, so here we go!

“You know,” Kukaku Shiba started. “You don’t owe the shinigami a single fucking thing.” 

This was the third week of her trying to convince Ichigo to join her and not go to the Academy. She’s practically adopted him, her and Ganju treated him as a younger brother, slotted him into the remaining Shiba clan as if he had always been there.

Was it adoption when in another life this would have been his family?

“I want to do this.” He said back like he had been saying for the last three weeks and she frowned.

“For who?”

For himself. He wanted to get stronger, learn to control his reiatsu, do basic kido without blowing up a building, wanted to beat Byakuya in a fight when he was not just trying to survive, wanted to change some of the senseless awfulness of Soul Society and he knew Kukaku saw that.

“They’re gonna get you killed.” She finally told him, anger in her eyes. “Is it not enough for you they already took your human life? You want them to take this life too?”

He knew it was because she saw Kaien in him (they all did) and the Shibas had lost too much to the Gotei 13 to be comfortable sending another son to them. But could he do this? This life outside the walls, Zangetsu going unused, this relative peace?

Renji let Ichigo lie on the bench in his office, the walls, and desks covered in papers. Renji moved about it, in control of the organized chaos. 

“What is all of this?” Ichigo asked him once. Renji painstakingly took the time to explain each divisions’ duties to him, taking special pride in explaining how the Seventh maintained peace between the Seireitei and Rukongai, the inside of the wall and outside of the wall. At first, he tried not to tell Ichigo about his predecessor who did the bare minimum for the Rukongai and everything for the Seireitei but Ichigo felt his unspoken frustration. Ichigo couldn’t imagine how it felt to know that when Renji was growing up the Seireitei could have helped him, could have saved some of the kids he grew up with and chose not to. He imagined that he would be furious, but Renji seemed exasperated and trying to do anything he could against a system that would prefer he did nothing.

There was a detailed map of Soul Society on the top of Renji’s desk (so much neater and more explanatory than the one Ganju had drawn for them years ago). He pointed out his district, Inuzuri, pointed out Kenpachi, the old Shiba lands, he explained that souls who died together could end on opposite sides of the map. Ichigo took back his earlier assumption. Renji was furious, hiding it well. The Rukongai was a convoluted and outdated system with millions of souls in the balance. And Renji’s Division was to keep the peace, not make it better, and it pissed him off. 

“Renji,” Ichigo said, one afternoon as the man paced back and forth in front of him. Thoughts of the outer districts plagued him and it was so clear in every step he took. “What did you need growing up?” And he stopped, tilted his head to the side.

“Honestly, support” There was as a pause. “Love.” It was what Ichigo wrote onto the map, right on top of Inuzuri, the black ink stood out.

_ Love _. Renji stared at it for a long time.

Rukia put him to work. As Lieutenant of the 13th, she was constantly moving and running the Division and Ichigo didn’t say it but he knew Kaien would be proud. She made him read her paperwork to her, drag her away after the sunset and not work all night. She shone under Ukitake, training and moving her Division, in a way it hadn’t since Kaien’s death.

“You can’t do anything more until you get Shunsei’s approval,” Rukia told him, one night as he sat on a pillow in her office. “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.” 

He wanted to; he wanted to be beside his friends again, defeating Hollows, protecting people but he also liked this a lot. He enjoyed being able to learn quietly about the bureaucracy of Soul Society, training with Kukaku and Ganju who didn’t hold back, learning about the Shibas and what could have been. He enjoyed listening to Renji as he planned reforms for the districts outside the walls. He enjoyed listening to the squabbling of the 13th’s thirds and hurrying after Rukia as she made decisions. But he also knew that if he went to the academy, if he went to Shunsei and said he was ready, they would give him his own power, his own knowledge while expecting so much of him.

“You don’t have to do it,” Rukia said. “You can rest.” 

He was not being pressured to choose one or the other; he was at a crossroads and time passed so slowly there.

Zangetsu was quiet not pushing him. He almost wished he would. 

It turns out it was Ikkaku at a party who tugged him under his arm, ruffled at his hair and said, “When you graduate you’re gonna join us right?” And then there was a general explosion as different people from different squads tried to stake their claim. Renji (the asshole who pushed him to come) was quiet with an amused expression on his face. Ichigo froze when everyone looked at him, quiet questions on their faces.

“Uh, well I haven’t even started yet.” He said.

“You will start right?” Rangiku asked. If he hadn’t seen the empty sake bottles over the ground, he would have thought this was an interrogation. He was quiet for a second, tossed over the warm atmosphere where he should have felt pressured to decide but he thought of the casual way Ikkaku pulled him down to sit among Yumichika, the way Rangiku hugged him, he thought about Renji and Rukia at his back and nodded. He thought about the power, the responsibility that would come with officially being one of them and found it didn’t matter.

“Yeah,” He said, confirming mostly for himself first. “Yeah, I think I am.” Zangetsu sighed in relief and Ichigo smiled. “But you’re crazy if you think I’m picking the Eleventh!”

Kukaku hugged him tight when he let her know his decision.

“You’re a Shiba now, representing us! Don’t make a fool of yourself!” She and Ganju were the ones with him at the Academy, dropped him off like a real family. “You make us proud.” It was downright sentimental, and the woman knew it, from the way she pushed Ichigo away hard. “Do nothing stupid!”

Do nothing stupid meant that when he took the entrance exam and placed in the first class and when people asked who he was, he said Shiba first. He left Zangetsu under the bed in his dorm and when people asked him if he knew the name of his zanpakuto he said no. The zanpakuto threatened to riot the first time he did it. But when Ichigo asked about sealing him, Zangetsu went quiet and mulish. When he fought with the wooden swords, he held himself back, out of respect for Zangetsu. He kept a tight lock on his reiatsu. He didn’t draw attention to himself; it became normal. Even in his Kido classes, where he struggled, didn’t feel half as hard as they should and since he was holding his reiatsu back, the explosions he expected when he got it wrong were much smaller. 

His professors still watched him and he knew they were wondering where the hero boy was. His classmates were curious and with his reiatsu so leashed they didn’t even realize who he was (many of them were young during the war, only hearing the stories and legends that leave his name out) and no one knew what to do with his too old yet too young soul. 

“Hey, Shiba!” She was a Kuchiki, he could see Byakuya in her jaw. “You want to have lunch with us?” She didn’t look nervous but her friends giggled behind her, it reminded him of High School.

“Yeah, Shiba, come to lunch with us.” Now there were the boys who reminded him so much of Keigo and Mizuiro. But they just seemed so young (and he knew that they could be older than him by years)

“I,” He started, but he finally shrugged, he was not busy. These kids (and it was what he kept thinking about them, even though they didn’t look any older than him) didn’t really know him. He thought about how reluctant Uryu was when he dragged him to lunch with them the first time. He wondered if he looked the same. “Sure.” 

They didn’t expect him to contribute much to the conversation. For them, Shiba was almost explanatory, he was the last son, a dead legacy. But he could pull together the threads of the relationships of their families and where they came from. The Kuchiki was in the same boat as him, representing a family, a legacy on her shoulders. Yanzo and Rikushi were from the west middle districts, boys inseparable since they found each other in Soul Society. He took notes for Renji because those from outside the walls talked freely about their lives before the Academy. Ichigo, who never had to suffer when he died, listened with rapt attention. 

It was to Renji he said “Kiyuki is from West 44th where they have sheep as far as the eye can see, everyone learns to make clothes and blankets right away. Rikushi is from East 31 and its self-sufficient, they don’t like outsiders.”

It’s Renji who asked insistently. “What did they need?” 

The word _ water _ went on top of West 44th, _ communication _ went on East 31st and _ Love _ stayed on top of South 78th, Inuzuri. 

He learned that there was no one further than the 70th district in any of the Academy classes; he didn’t say so to Renji who wore Inuzuri on his chest. 

He told Rukia who lied beside him in the blowing grass outside of Kukaku’s house. She had been pointing out the stars for him, showed him how different Soul Society was from the World of the Living. 

“Maybe, there wasn’t anyone strong enough?” She said, and it didn’t even sound convincing to his own ears. “There’s less food out there.” She finally said after they sat in companionable silence for minutes under the dark night. “We were hungry when we weren’t supposed to be and the only ones who have any food were the Shinigami. It’s harder to get to the Academy when you can’t survive a week without food.” 

Underneath _ Love _ on the map, there was a small dot with _ food _written clear as day.

There was a night when he arrived at the Seventh barracks, the Lieutenant, Kamino Ryu nodded at him as he passed. It left a warm feeling in his chest. 

“You know, I didn’t leave the Academy once during training,” Renji said, not looking up from the map.

“Well, it’s a good thing I have a Captain to cover for me.” Ichigo quipped back, and he heard Renji’s answering soft snort. 

“We’re gonna spar tonight.” Renji finally said when he turned around and grabbed Ichigo’s arm pulling him out of the office. 

Ichigo didn’t have the mindset to say no until they were out on the training ground, the moon above them and Zabimaru crashed towards him. He jumped out of the way and reached for Zangetsu who did a barking laugh in his brain because he was not there; he was still at the Academy. 

“Shit!” Ichigo said as he dodged again. “Renji wait!” Renji who always talked was quiet as Zabimaru swiped at Ichigo’s legs and chest, not pausing at all, not questioning why Ichigo wasn’t defending himself. He tried to remember the kido incantations, throwing pathetic bursts of energy Renji dodged with ease. 

What an awful time to realize he hadn’t had a real fight since he died. It’s only after he’s dodged the fifth or sixth pass of Zabimaru does Renji start fucking talking to him.

“Where’s your zanpakuto, Ichigo?” He asked, and Ichigo doesn’t have the breath to answer when he’s trying to avoid tripping over Zabimaru. “Where is he?” Fuck, Renji was angry and not holding back. Ichigo would feel a little better if Zangetsu wasn’t a smug presence in the back of his head. 

Ichigo slammed a Kido shield up at the last second and the clang of Zabimaru against it shook his bones. 

“Why are you holding back?” He would almost sound like Kenpachi but it wasn’t a taunt, it was an angry question like he expected him to answer. “Come on Ichigo!”

“I can’t! Damnit, Renji, stop!”

“You can’t stop me right now. Is it worth it? Blending in among everyone else if I can kill you right now?” He hated how transparent he must be if fucking Renji could see through him. “Did you think we wouldn’t notice you haven’t carried Zangetsu in months?” We, shit, that meant Rukia was probably gonna try to talk to him too. “You decided to go to the Academy, Ichigo. No one forced you!” The blunt edge of Zabimaru caught him in his stomach and threw him to the ground, hard. He rolled to avoid the following swipe, tugged himself to his feet again only to have the air knocked out of him by the recoil. “How are you supposed to get stronger if you aren’t even giving it your all? How are you supposed to protect anyone if you’re hiding it!” Renji pushed him to the ground and stood over him and Ichigo glared at him, wheezing. Renji’s eyes were intense, and he wasn’t even breathing hard. Asshole.

“There are too many people here who would rather see you dead for you to walk around defenseless!” It was stern and persistent.

“I’m not defenseless!” Ichigo snapped, pulling himself into a standing position. He was not powerless even without Zangetsu who bristled at the thought of not being Ichigo’s main source of power. 

“You’re out of practice.” Renji barked back. He was in his face now, close and so damn insistent. “If you come here without Zangetsu again, I will kill you myself.” 

When he woke up the next morning, his body was sore in a way it hadn’t been in years, it strangely felt good. He slid Zangetsu from under the bed, the zanpakuto a welcome weight as he gripped the hilt. When he closed his eyes, Zangetsu was there. 

_ Finally done ignoring us? _When he opened his eyes, Zangetsu had sealed himself. In sealed form, Zangetsu was small and red, and in his mind, he could feel dull anger. He thought about apologizing but the zanpakuto already knew. 

No one commented on the zanpakuto at his hip, with no guard. But when they sat around the tree at lunch, he could feel the curiosity. He said nothing but listened as they talked about their lives and they let him.

When there was a loud banging at his door, he thought he was dying again. 

“Shiba!” It was the Kuchiki girl. He worried for a second but she was grinning. “We have a mission.” 

Ichigo spent the entire mission, worried. Zangetsu who had little time on him while at the Academy was impatient and it became a dual war in him as he kept both the zanpakuto and his reiatsu at bay. The false Hollows were child’s play considering the ones that used to grace Karakura but Ichigo called the shots with his squad and no one questioned him. It went flawlessly, and it was why when he felt the rip in space from Hundo Mueco he almost screamed in frustration. 

“Run!” He told the kids who stared at him in shock as he gripped Zangetsu, his tightly laced power coming undone. “Zangetsu!” 

“You are him, Kurosaki.” He was not sure which of them said it.

“Go!” 

Zangetsu sang when he came in contact with the Hollow and deep in his mind, he heard his Hollow laughing.

_ It’s been too long, king. _

They reprimanded him for leaving his group and they wanted to put a fucking limiter on his powers next time he goes out but they were all alive and they looked at him in muted awe. 

“Was it too much for me to want to just be?” He was raising his voice at them, Rukia and Renji, in Renji’s office because they practically always met up there. “Take it easy, rest.” He said to Rukia, throwing the words at her like an accusation. “Was it too much to ask for?” They stared at him, not quite guilt or regret in their eyes, maybe a little pity. He hated it. 

“Ichigo,” Rukia started, and he found he didn’t want to hear what she had to say. He threw his hands up, turned to leave, when Renji was there grabbing his arm, if Ichigo wanted to he could throw Renji through the wall kinda wanted to. 

“We will not apologize for wanting you to fight to stay alive,” Renji said and Ichigo shook off his hand, pulled himself up a little, glared hard at the other man. 

“Too late, I’m already dead.” 

“Ichigo!” Rukia called after him but Ichigo had already shut the door behind him.

Now as he spent far less time away from the Academy, unfortunately, it made him a bigger target for his classmates who through rumors from others pieced together who he was. 

He expected questions from them about Aizen, the end of the world, the Soul King but most don’t, well, except for Kuchiki who bluntly asked him, “Why are you here? Why aren’t you a captain or part of some Division?” The others stopped eating, even Yanzo who was mid-chew, looked at him for his answer. 

“I still have a lot to learn.” He said to her, and she nodded once, bit her lip. 

“Can you teach us how to fight? You probably know way more than you let on.” There was hope in her eyes and when he looked at the others, they mirrored her. He looked down at his food.

“Yeah,” He said. “I can do that.” 

It was interesting, the way they listened to him. Their questions weren’t invasive, he held back a little less with them when they practiced with their zanpakutos, one or two of them flew across the room, but they got back up with excited grins and fought harder. For everything he taught them, Kuchiki, who asked him to call her Sairi, taught him better ways to control his kido. 

“Everyone always says it’s about control or concentration, your control could be better, but mostly it’s about intent.” She maneuvered his arms into the position and leaned back. “You’re so worried about it blowing up in your face you lose it, so convinced you’ll never get it.” When Renji attacked him the only thing he thought about was stopping him and it was why the kido shield even worked and was just the way his life worked, he had to almost die for shit to work. 

He and Sairi moved together and when the last word of the Incantation came out his mouth, it worked! It was far from the target but it didn’t blow up. He laughed with her, a clear slice of relief sat in his stomach. Kido was the only thing he could never get and if he got it, or if he became better with it, there was nothing Central 46 could say if he became a Captain.

They practiced for what felt like hours, collapsed exhausted into the grass of the training area. 

“Ichigo,” Sairi asked, and avoided his eyes when he turns to look at her. “Do you ever regret it?” He had been waiting for questions about the War, waiting for someone to ask him about how it felt to hold a god in his hand by the throat and choke but he wasn’t expecting this. 

“No,” He said, thinking about Rukia’s smile and Renji pacing his office. He thought about Chad, Orihime, and Uryu and just knew, he wouldn’t have changed a thing, even when it cost him his life. 

“Good.” She said, closing her eyes, looking peaceful in the grass. “That’s good.” 

Several weeks passed, and he threw himself into his classes, where before he would have taken a detour to the 13th to see Rukia, he tutored some fifth years on achieving Shikai. Where before he would help Renji, he studied kido incantations in the library. He was mature enough to admit he missed them but stubborn enough to ignore the feeling.

With so many of the teachers open to allowing him the freedom to tutoring the younger years (and it reminded him so much of his students in the Living World that it makes his heart ache) it was a surprise, on the day when he was showing the fourth years how to be better with their flash step, rumors started. Ichigo mostly ignored them.

“Did you hear there are some captains here today?” He rolled his eyes overhearing the whisper knowing it was probably the people he considered his friends who weren’t as awe-inspiring to him as they were to his classmates. How could they be when he had seen those same people rely on him in the war? 

“There are many ways to take advantage of the flash step,” He said. “Byakuya, for instance.” 

“Captain Kuchiki to you, Kurosaki.” The gasp from the fourth years was almost comical as Ichigo made eye contact with an amused Rukia. “Sorry to interrupt your class,”. She said in her tone of voice to say she wasn’t sorry at all. “Captain Hitsugaya is giving a demonstration on the kido training grounds and would like your attendance.” She said to his class, and he dismissed them with a wave of his hand, not looking away from Rukia. 

“What do you want?” He finally asked, and she frowned at how sharp his voice is. 

“Ichigo,” She started, and it was as apologetic as he would get from Rukia, she clenched her jaw before sighing, her face slipping back into Kuchiki apathy. “I came to warn you.” The tone of her voice from earlier was back, and he straightened up subconsciously. “Several captains are here to look over the graduating class and thought they won’t admit it, to check up on your progress.” She moved away from him sitting on the chairs left by the students. “Everyone is curious about if you’ll take the graduate exam in the fall.” Only one professor had asked him if he had plans to advance quickly and he had shrugged the man off (that was before the Hollow attacked though). “You could do it.” There was a soft belief in her voice, she had always believed in him (except when she didn’t and sacrificed herself to save him and that’s why they’re here now). “Look, I even drew you up the same cheat sheet I drew Renji for his exams!” 

“Rukia! Get better drawings!” They fell into the bickering that defined them with ease. 

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean!”

“Where is he, anyway?” He had tried and failed to sense Renji’s spiritual power in the Academy and from the way, the smile dropped from Rukia’s face, it worried him. 

“There was an attack in East 23rd.” He hates the way his stomach drops out. 

“An attack,” His voice raised, she stood as if to calm him, her hands out as if calming a skittish animal. 

“Hollow, it happens. Renji went to go handle it. Ichigo,” She said grabbing at his arm. “He’s a Captain, he’s fine.” 

“I know.” He said, and he does and she knew it from the way her face closes off from him. 

“You worried us.” She said firmly. “You went all quiet like you did when you failed.” He was a child back then, stupid, reliant on her. “Everyone knows you’re capable of more than rotting away from your own decisions.” 

“Rukia,” He said and hated the longing in his voice, the quiet need. 

“You’re good at this. You chose this, this time. Don’t waste it.” She turned to leave, and he reached out for her, she took his hand tightly before letting go. “My Captain calls me.” She said, her masks firmly in place. She stepped in close to him, tilting her head up to look him in the eye. “You know where we are, stop running away.” 

Stop running away. Was he running, taking his time here, was running from some larger destiny, from them? 

When he walked into Renji’s office that night, he almost didn’t expect to see the man there, it was later than he used to come by and he hadn’t heard from anyone what happened. Even bent over the map on his desk, he could see the bandages on Renji’s arms and neck. 

“You’re hurt.” Renji tensed up and the fact he didn’t even notice Ichigo came in spoke volumes. “What happened?”

“He got in front of me.” He edged out the way as Renji’s lieutenant, Kamino Ryu slid past him. “I have your tea, Captain.” She said as she placed two cups down in front of Renji on a small, not noticeable empty spot on the table. “And lay down before I call Captain Unohana on you! The one on the left is yours, Ichigo” Ryu said and Ichigo sent a thankful nod her way. Renji waved her off, still not turning to face Ichigo. 

“What are you doing here?” Renji asked, voice low. Ichigo leaned against the wall, hating when Renji tried to close himself off like this. 

“Making sure you’re alive. What happened?” Ichigo asked and Renji turned to look at him and Ichigo did not flinch from how intense his eyes were, his mouth set in a grim line. 

“A man went to visit his family in the E 23rd, a hollow followed him home and killed them all.” Ichigo knew there was horror in his eyes. “The closest other shinigami was three districts away and by the time he made it there, the hollow killed four families. Luckily, he called for backup.” He threw himself back in his chair, his uninjured hand slamming on the desk near the tea. Ichigo watched the cups shake, but they didn’t spill. “There should have been a patrol nearby, three patrols were out, none of them were close to it! It was a one Hollow, we needed one patrol, it killed 50 people!” 

There were 320 districts in the Rukongai and Renji seemed to care about each one. Ichigo looked over at the map saw that East 23rd had a single word on it. _ Protection _. 

“So we increase patrols,” Ichigo said. Renji was a captain, why did he look so defeated? It was simple to Ichigo, they protect them all then. 

“It’s not that easy,” Renji said, his eyes were still on the map as if he realized the sheer scope of what he was trying to accomplish. 

“We make it that easy then! If we have to do it, we do it!” Ichigo said slamming his hand on the desk in front of him. Renji looked up at him, his eyes sharp, an even expression on his face. Why was Renji fighting so hard against him on this? They could do it. 

“You’re back,” Renji said with a low voice.

“I was always here,” Ichigo said, but he knew what Renji was talking about, knew that a piece of him broke when he died (broke when the war ended if he was being honest with himself) 

“We missed you,” Renji said, each word sounding as if he had to drag it out. 

“I’m here,” Ichigo said, looking at Renji. “I’m here.” 

After that moment ended, quiet and seeping. They got to work. 

“It would be hard to communicate and even get patrols out there, there’s no consistent communication between the districts, no real transportation.”

“Hell butterflies?” 

“Limited supply, easy to intercept. Most Divisions only have so many, we have five I think.” Kamino said as she entered. She bumped Ichigo out the way so she could help Renji move to a bench by the wall. Renji glared at her as she did it but she ignored him. “Your best bet would be a layered kido net.” 

“What?” Both Ichigo and Renji said and Kamino blushed looking down. “You both aren’t the best at kido so you wouldn’t know this.” She said, taking the seat Renji vacated. “The Seireitei is surrounded by a net circle of kido spells, attached to the wall made of sekkisei. These multiple layers do different things, like keep people from breaking into it,” She said tilting her head towards Ichigo, remembering Kukaku’s own explanation years ago. “Another is ensuring that the devices that run off of reiatsu to work, and it’s why as we go further into the Rukongai the signals get lost.” She sketched something on top of Renji’s note, biting her lip in concentration. “To do the communications and transportation system you’re thinking of we would either have to expand the kido net to surround the Rukongai or and this will probably be easier, create heavy concentrated points that act as beacons.” Ichigo blinked at her in surprise. He knew Renji chose her as his lieutenant for a reason. 

“She tested the top of her class in kido,” Renji said to the expression on Ichigo’s face. “Turned down kido corps for a position in the fifth before applying to be a lieutenant.” He looked proud. Ichigo thought about Hinamori and knew Renji accepted her offer for a multitude of reasons (guilt probably for not being able to see what Aizen was going to her) 

“You think it’s possible, a full-scale communication and transportation system from the furthest district to the Seireitei?”

“I think if we plan it right, it could change everything, sir.” She turned her eyes on Ichigo. “You will help right?”

“Of course,” Ichigo said it like him not helping would be impossible, and it was, changing Soul Society was what they made him for, he knew that now. 


	2. Chapter 2

He took the graduate exam in the fall. He passed. No one doubted he would. 

Rukia was downright smug. 

She was one of the few people who knew what Division he chose; he thought Renji knew but the man could be oblivious to things clear in his face. 

“Shinji really offered to give you the 5th?” Rukia asked, looking over his desk. She hated visiting him at the Academy, preferred to having him either in Renji’s office or her’s in the Thirteenth, he knew she didn’t have the best memories here, but she had respected his decision to keep all the Division talk here and not out in the Seireitei where someone could overhear. 

“I already turned him down.” There was a heady sense of power again like Urahara, that the Visoreds were so willing to be on his side still amazed him. 

“And Brother?”

“I don’t want to be his lieutenant. He’s still looking for a Renji replacement.” When they locked eyes, he knew they were thinking the same thing, Byakuya would never find one like Renji. She leaned her head into his lap, his hand carded through her black hair. 

“They’re all coming to the ceremony, you can’t avoid giving them a straight answer forever.” Rukia was downright amused by this whole situation.

It was her who took him to Ukitake and asked for his help in plotting the politics of Soul Society. Ukitake explained each of the intricacies of the positions and Divisions far better than the Academy did which boiled down to ‘Be a good Shinigami, follow orders, listen to your captain.’ Ukitake talked to him like every Captain is a piece on a chessboard, and showed how to maneuver them. Rukia listened, a soft proud expression on her face.

“Your job,” Ukitake said before Ichigo left. “Will be to keep the balance and fight Hollows. You and Renji both need to remember that.” 

“You have visitors coming,” Rukia said from his lap and he looked down at her, she smirked when the knock came and didn’t move so he figured he could tell the others to come in. 

He thought Rukia almost liked the way the Academy students stuttered and became starry-eyed in her presence. 

“Lieutenant Kuchiki!” They said with a deep bow when they spotted her and Rukia chuckled, pushing herself off his lap. It was Sairi and all of her friends. He thought he would miss sitting beneath the tree eating with them, listening to their experiences from outside the wall. “We’ve just come to say thank you for everything, Ichigo,” Sairi said. He allowed them to hug him and when they left, Rukia looked at him with the soft proud expression again and he had to look away.

The Seventh didn’t treat him any different. He walked into Renji’s office, Kamino slapped a pile of files on the desk and Renji barely had to wave his hand for Ichigo to sit down and start going through them. 

“These are all the files that show why the Seventh did nothing for the Rukongai,” Renji told him once, clenching the folder so tight it crinkled between his hands. 

“What are we looking for?”

“What we have to do to fix it.” 

Even the night before the Ceremony, he was there sitting next to Renji as the candle burned down, Rukia was lying on the pillow on the other side, listening to the soft sounds of papers turning. It was warm, comfortable. He knew he made the right decision. 

“See ya, Captain,” Ichigo said before he left and he watched Renji startle, looking up with a grin.

“Really? Really?” He asked looking at Rukia who just nodded chuckling to herself. “Are you sure, you’re turning down Shunsei, for me?” 

“Yeah, you think I do all this for someone, not my captain?” While Renji spluttered Rukia laughed then. 

“You think this is funny?” 

“He chose you months ago, idiot.” She curbs her laughter. “It’s always been you, he doesn’t belong anywhere else.” That’s how Rukia voted for where he should go, she listened to Ukitake and the chessboard and she looked at him and knew him. No other Division would fit him, not how the Seventh would, not for what he was capable of. She wouldn’t say what that is, but she sat in the office as Renji plotted and never critiqued him if only to add something to it. 

“It’s dangerous.” She said only once. “What you’re doing but if anyone can do it it’s you guys.” 

“Captain,” He said again and Renji smiled that crooked grin of his and nodded. 

They’ve had work to do. 

Being the Third Seat of a Division was difficult, Renji placed him in charge of the unseated officers, of patrols, he let Ichigo go back and forth between the Living World and Soul Society whenever something weird hit Kurakura town. He developed a normal of working, of sparring, of leading his men, of going to Kurakura and still protecting his family and friends, of sitting in Renji’s office, Rukia lying on the floor, piles of papers between them. Ryu flitting in and out with new information.

He sat across the table from Orihime on one of his trips back and he saw a spot of gray in her orange hair and it surprised him. He thought she would live forever; he thought they all would. 

“You really think it’s gonna work?” She asked him.

“It has too.” He said, and she took his hand. “For you guys, for everyone.” 

“Getting from the 11th to the 80th Districts takes two weeks, and that’s only if you don’t spend any time in any of the districts on the way there,” Ryu said to Ichigo as her hand traveled the map. 

“So it’s a month’s trip all around,” He said. 

“Anyone coming from the 80th isn’t going back.”

“We will.” She looked up at him. He didn’t take it back.

“The outside districts form only the beginning of the border of soul society which is ever-shifting and fluid.” His Professor said in the Academy, their hands spanning the map of Soul Society. “The Eastern districts are bordered by the Desert, the Northern districts the Mountain, The Sea to the West, and the Forest to the South, there is no research on what lies on the other sides of these masses.” 

“I wanna see it.” He told Renji one night, lying on his back looking at the ceiling of the office. 

“What, Inuzuri?” Renji lied beside him, their shoulders pressed into each other. “Not much to see. Further in you can see the Wood.” 

“The Wood?” 

“Trees taller than any building you’ve ever seen, we used to play at the edges when we were younger and they would tell us. "Don’t go beyond, the monsters will get you.” His smile was tight, nostalgic. “Do you know how far away South 79th is from Inuzuri?”

“A week?”

“Less than a day, we never saw them, that has to stop! The outer districts have to be connected like the inner districts or there won’t be any outer districts.” 

He enjoyed watching Rukia and Ryu work together, the two women played off of each other, bouncing complicated kido theories right over his head. 

Ryu would say “Kido 62, pointed straight at the sky,” 

Rukia would interrupt. “No, it would have to 6 combined with 24”

“It’s a new spell! It would have to be based on a smaller concentrated spell and expand, not just one spell that splits it into more pieces!”

“No, according to treatise 65, spells lose intensity regardless of method, a smaller concentrated expanded spell would dissipate much quicker.” He would watch as Ryu ran over to the book that held the treatise she referenced while Rukia watched with a smug look. He guessed she won the argument, what about he wasn’t sure. 

The same day, Ryu looked over at him, her brow wrinkled as if she suddenly remembered something. “Can we try something real quick?”

“No,” Rukia said before he had the chance to answer. “You don’t know if it will work.”

“How else are we supposed to try it? You two are far more compatible than me and you, Rukia.” 

“You don’t know that.” She said in response.

“Not true!” Ichigo said, a little late. “What are we trying?”

“Come here, Ichigo.” Rukia stood, reaching out her hand to his. “Remember when we went to Tokyo last week,”. How could he forget? “I asked Tessai for some advice on how he would do this and he recommended this.”

“What?” He said and Rukia only smiled a tight-lipped smile and he screamed or Zangetzu screamed, or they were both screamed as it felt like pure electricity ran through his veins. He closed his eyes, or he blacked out and the next thing he knew, Rukia was standing above him a terrified expression on her face. 

Ryu pressed herself against the wall, a hand pressed to her mouth in horror. 

“What did you do?” He asked Rukia, surprised by how low his voice was, how menacing he sounded. 

“I told them it wouldn’t work.” She said. 

They had taken a trip to Tokyo; it was a break, a vacation, they hunted down a hollow giving smaller squads problems and then he took Rukia to a bunny cafe where she practically lost her mind. 

It was softer than they used to be when war and problems sprang up every two months; it was gentler than they used to be, they were kinder to each other. Maybe it was because they were stronger or it was because they had grown up, they had changed, became different people?

Ichigo watched as Rukia hugged a stuffed bunny larger than her as she squealed and he smiled. 

He sat by his father’s grave afterward. Rukia, Tessai and Urahara standing together by the entrance and whispering as he leaned against his father’s memorial stone. 

“Are we doing the right thing?” He asked, more to the air than his mother or Isshin. “Will we really be able to fix all this?” No one answered. He didn’t expect them too. 

Neither of the girls reported to Renji about the kido developments so it fell to Ichigo and he said: “They’re gonna pull back on the energy kido stuff.” 

“Why?” Renji said looking up, suspicious. 

Ichigo didn’t say ‘Well, Rukia forced my hollow out with the intent on draining it of energy’, he didn’t say ‘Ryu saw the real me and it must have terrified her,’ he didn’t say ‘We don’t think we can do it without killing me.’ instead he kinda shrugged and said “That kido goes right over my head, I don’t know.” 

Renji took his word for it, Renji always took his word for it.


	3. we arent' monsters (yet)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They can't afford to be passive anymore.

They didn’t talk about it, which was bad because everyone noticed something was off about them. Rukia would smile and reach out to touch Ichigo and pause in her tracks. She stopped coming to meetings with Ryu.

“We’re just taking a little break, don’t worry,” Ryu told Ichigo, smiling weakly.

Renji noticed that Rukia wouldn’t touch Ichigo almost immediately. 

He went “Is there something wrong with you two?” 

Ichigo said, “No, why would there be?” 

“You would tell me if something was up, right?” Renji asked back. He had nodded in response. If Rukia hadn’t told him, why would Ichigo be the one to say something?

Ryu threw him across the sparring ground and he landed with a thump. 

“Stop going easy on me!” She said and Zangetzu laughed in agreement. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Ichigo said with a laugh whirling away from her next kick. 

“Don’t be disrespectful!” Fighting Ryu was always fun, she was clever, but whenever they had fights where she couldn’t use her kido, Ichigo always had the upper hand. He was going easy on her but it was still a workout. 

“Lieutenant!” Both of them froze, as one of their men, a lower-ranking one, ran up to them. “We need your help, come quick, please!” 

“3rd Seat,” Ryu said falling back on her training far more easily than Ichigo did. “If the captain needs anything,”

“I got it.” He affirms, and they took off. 

Later, when he walked into Renji’s office and saw Ryu standing there with a small girl with tear-stained cheeks behind her, he knew something was up.

The story was simple, one of their men, an unseated officer, had attacked and raped a woman as her daughter ran away screaming. She ended up running to the nearby village where a neighboring shinigami was. He knew Ryu, knew she was in charge of that specific man and brought the girl to her. Simple in how much of the story could have changed if there hadn’t been a shinigami there if the little girl hadn’t,

“He did what?!” Ichigo’s power exploded and washed over the room, Ryu dug her nails into his arm, gesturing with her other hand to the girl pale from experiencing it. He forced himself to cap it but whirled out of her grip, his hands slammed on top of Renji’s desk. “Let me handle this.” He said. Renji stared at him as if he had grown another head. Where was his anger at the situation? A man of theirs was abusing women in the Rukongai! 

“Slow down,” Renji said. 

“He’s an unseated officer, my problem, hurting innocent people! If he wasn’t a noble son, you would already be moving.” He flung his hands out and Renji flinched as if Ichigo had hit him. “If you let him get away with this, you’re no better than Byakuya used to be!” He meant it, meant to bring up Renji’s insecurity as a captain and expose it. 

They were supposed to be changing things, this was a clear example of how they could do so. Why was Renji hesitating!! 

“Enough!” Renji said, raising his voice, and they all startled back. “Do you agree?” He asked Ryu who locked her jaw together to nod. She was stubborn, they all were, it was why they made a great team when they worked together but also why this was turning into a standoff. 

“If it was one of us, you wouldn’t hesitate, sir.” She said and Ichigo grinned a feral grin in agreement. Renji sighed, looking from one to the other and then down to the child. 

“Ma’am,” He said to the girl. “We will help your Mommy, okay?” He looked up at his Lieutenant. “Ryu, escort her back home.”

“Captain!” Ichigo echoed her. “She’s not safe there until we handle him!” 

“Bring her mother back with you, quickly.” Ryu dropped her head. “They’ll stay here.” Renji leaned back in his chair. 

“What are you going to do?” She asked, and he looked at Ichigo and nodded. 

“Make an example of him.” 

After Ryu left, holding the girl’s hand. Ichigo looked at Renji and said, “Are you sure about this?”

“Are you?” He thought about how angry he was at this injustice, so full of righteous fury. Justifiable anger, he let it fuel him. Felt 15 again, which worried him more than he’ll ever admit.

“Yeah, yeah I am.” 

“Your show.” 

Ichigo pulled together the division, moving around patrols, glowering at people who complained, he got everyone where they needed to be. 

He didn’t know what he would do. Well, he did, had a plan, he kinda hated Renji was letting him lead on this one because what if they were wrong? What if this itch of his begging to be scratched was not the sign he thought it was?

They were not.

Renji called a squad meeting, and no one suspected the real reason and then Nihiko saw her, his victim and sneered. 

“You’re gonna trust a  _ bitch  _ from the Rukongai? She,” Ichigo moved before he finished speaking, Zangetzu egging him on. He cut him down, slicing across the man’s body intending to  _ punish  _ not kill, he didn’t kill him. 

“Get up,” Ichigo said not recognizing his voice. Well, he recognized it but it had been a long time. “Try to hit someone who can hit back.” There was silence from behind him, a shocked silence and he gritted his teeth. “He’s not going to get up. He’d know he’d lose.” 

“Get em up!” He heard Renji call, no one moved. He thought about turning around, baring his teeth, snarling ‘ _ didn’t you hear the captain! _ ’ But he didn’t, his hands shook on the top of his hilt, he didn’t read into it. 

“He will live and face the crimes he has committed against these women. Any man like him will face the same. Get him up, Now!” The men edged past Ichigo stared at him as if he were a monster, the same men he had trained and laughed with less than two days ago. 

He can’t turn and face Renji, didn’t quite know what to say, so he listened. “You are under arrest for crimes against the Rukongai and her people. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Nihiko didn’t answer, but he heard Ryu gasp at a clear slight to their captain and Renji ordered: “Take him away.” 

There was silence for quite some time. 

“Anyone who thinks he is exempt from obeying the law and protecting the innocent, request a transfer now because I will not be this lenient again” Ichigo realized he was the lenient one, in the hypothetical future scenario. He would have to be the one to force Renji to keep his word, something inside his stomach clenched at the thought. There was no verbal response. “Dismissed.” 

Ichigo didn’t move.

“Ichigo,” He heard Renji start, but the man stopped just as quickly. 

‘Come on,” Ryu said, tugging at his robes. There was a tenseness to her jaw, a tightening that does not release. “Ichigo,” she repeated, her voice descending into a soft panic. “We have work to do. Come on!” 

Ryu was the only one who didn’t treat him differently, dropping files on his desk, forcing him to train with her. She refused to let him slink away, Renji didn’t talk to him. He didn’t think it was on purpose but the man sent him orders through Ryu, said nothing when Ichigo tried to sneak away to the Living World. There was something wrong between them, they could see it. The others, his men went quiet in his presence, bowing their heads, he felt like a tyrant. 

“Did I do the wrong thing?” He asked Rukia. “Am I,” a monster like they thought he was?

“Be quiet,” Rukia said, flipping through a file on her desk. 

Ichigo paced in front of her desk, moving like a whirlwind.

“I’m serious Rukia, I could have killed him,” Which was what Zangetsu wanted to do, and he wasn’t 17 anymore. He could control himself, control his powers. This situation was driving his mad. 

“Good.” Her voice was so cold it could have been a glacier. He spun around to look at her, it wasn’t her talking. It had to be Byakuya possessing her or, 

“You don’t mean that,”

“I do! He was raping women Ichigo and got caught.” She said it like it was simple, it was, during the moment, he had been so certain. But now,

“I know that.” 

“No, I don’t think you do.” She said rising. “He was just one man who thought they could walk into the Rukongai and treat women any way they wanted and he got caught! Let this be a warning to them.” He stared at her. “Do you know how many shinigami, how many  _ men  _ walked around Inuzuri thinking they could do whatever they want, take whatever they wanted because no one cared enough about Inuzuri or  _ us  _ to stop them?” She stopped in front of him, looking up at him with a sharp glare. 

“I,” he started. He heard the stories, he knew what they went through growing up.

“You don’t know because you didn’t have to grow up out there, and that’s okay.” Air rushed out his chest. He tried to! They brought him back in the walls. But also a voice that sounded a lot like Renji told him to be quiet, to listen to her. “You didn’t have to suffer, which is great. But take my word for it when I say your man was just one and there are so many more.” 

“Rukia, you’re talking like,” Like she, and he couldn’t even finish the thought. 

“I got lucky, I had Renji, I had my boys, but I had a sister who had to leave me behind and I know  _ why _ .” She gripped his wrist, looked away from him with those violet insistent eyes. “What you and Renji did, stopping him, making a scene, it sends a sign to men like him that their time is running out and we won’t let them get away with hurting them anymore.” 

He stepped back forcing her to let go of him. 

“You feel like a monster when you were just defending them. What about that little girl and her mother? What about?” He didn’t need her to preach to him, he knew why he did it. 

“He couldn’t fight back, Rukia!” He yelled, and she froze. “I don’t feel bad for him, I don’t regret it, but he couldn’t fight back,  _ none  _ of them could.”

“Good.” She said and when he opened his mouth, she just put her hand up. “It means they’ll think twice.” She was talking like, like Ukitake, like a Captain, like someone who had already decided this outcome was the best conclusion she could come up with. She took a deep breath, stepped back. “It means we have to move faster and make it so the Rukongai can protect themselves without us.” 

What did she mean by that, why would they need?

“Good intentions rarely pan out the way we think we will.” She said with a grim smile. “You and Renji have this moment of reconsidering what  _ exactly  _ you’re trying to do, but let it just be a moment. We have work to do.” She delivered each word like an icy wind, intent on whipping his resignation away. He clenched his jaw.

“You and Ryu quit.” He reminded her, and she huffed looking away.

“We took a break but we’re not done. Now that we’ve started, I don’t think we can stop. You and Renji remember that.” 

They don’t just fall back in together. Several of their men transferred out of the unit, a few retired. Their remaining men were nervous and Ichigo grimaced as Renji ran them through hellish drills. They had to find a new normal or something would wrong soon. 

He heard Ryu snap at Renji before the both of them went back to pretending as if nothing had changed. 

Everything had changed, in a way. They couldn’t be passive anymore, not to their men and not to the Shinigami who thought the Rukongai was their personal playground. 

“Come with me,” Renji said to him as the man headed out the doors of their Division. 

“What’s up?” He asked back and the other man sent him a small relieved smile. 

Later, he would find out Rukia hadn’t spoken to the other man in weeks for his closed-off behavior since the incident as he had taken to calling it in his head. Ichigo forgave easily, fought for normality quicker. 

Rukia and Renji held grudges, Renji though was quick to forgive, Rukia didn’t. 

“I’m headed to West Four and Five and Six, to talk to the village elders.” He said. His pace was quick and steady. 

“Why?” Ichigo asked. They walked in sync beside each other (when Ryu was there, it made him feel invincible). 

“The Rukongai used to be left on its own, several villages had their own way of managing themselves, some villages still do.” Ichigo knew this one.

“Like East 26th, and North 10 through 20.” Renji grinned at him, it almost made him feel like they were going back to normal. 

“Yeah, if we can recreate those systems in places where they’ve broken down,”

“Then they can protect themselves.” Renji looked at him with a calculating gaze. 

“Yeah, and it will make it easier to build the network we want if the district is stable.” Ichigo stopped, tilting his head in confusion.

“But Four, Five and Six are stable.” He said, most Shinigami came from inside 10 districts, the majority. 

“They’re fractured,” Renji said as they passed the gate guardian. Learning that passage between the gates was much easier than his original attempt always pissed him off. “And there is always room for improvement.” 

Later, as he watched Renji bow to the elders, speaking as eloquently as Renji could about his goals and watching as the elder’s eyes grew bigger, he felt proud.

They were building something; he wasn’t sure yet what that meant. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the irregular posting, its the holiday season here, it's driving me mad.

**Author's Note:**

> I talk about this universe and more on my tumblr  
[Bloodbendingbabe](https://bloodbendingbabe.tumblr.com/)


End file.
